


small smiles

by OrangePatrick



Series: Old Stuff From Tumblr (Unrelated) [2]
Category: The Maze Runner (Movies), The Maze Runner Series - James Dashner
Genre: Fluff, Homophobia, Internalized Homophobia, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-02-23
Updated: 2016-02-23
Packaged: 2018-05-22 20:40:42
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,236
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6093409
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/OrangePatrick/pseuds/OrangePatrick
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Gally's the first to notice it.<br/>---<br/>warnings: internalized homophobia (Gally), horribly unedited writing, blushy Tommy, author who for some reason either has too much dialogue or none at all</p><p>mix of elements from both the book and the movie adaptation /// canonical divergence (night in the maze under different circumstances) /// gladers-stay-in-the-glade au /// mild 3rd person restricted Gally pov</p>
            </blockquote>





	small smiles

Gally recognized the new boy as soon as he came out of the box. Tidbits of memories from the Changing made the greenie seem scarily familiar, although the Glader couldn’t quite place him. He decided that he’d just keep an eye on this new boy, wait and watch.

  
That’s why Gally was the first to notice. He elbowed Winston at lunch one day and asked, “Have you noticed anything… weird about Newt and the greenie?”

  
Winston wrinkled his nose in thought. “Uh, no. Why?”

  
“Just wondering.”

  
After that, everyone started noticing.

  
In the beginning, it was just bashful staring. Thomas watching Newt working, Newt watching Alby show Thomas around. It was easy enough to pretend that it didn’t happen.

  
And then they started catching each other’s eyes. Initially, when one caught the other staring, both immediately looked away again. Eventually, however, Newt started smiling at the brunet when he caught him staring. And then Thomas started smiling back. They were just little quirks of the corners of their lips, but everyone noticed.

  
Gally didn’t remember much from before the Glade, but he did know that this was dreadfully wrong on multiple levels, the primary being the fact that… well… they were two boys. And that’s not how love works, not according to his knowledge. And that the idea might spread, that two boys were allowed to do things like that with each other— which isn’t… natural.

  
Despite all this, however, Gally seemed to be the only one to remember that.  Alby always just smirked as Thomas and Newt danced around each other, and when, during the celebratory fire, the two seemed to disappear together, the other boys just snickered and made bets on when they’d come out. (Once, Frypan asked Thomas when he and Newt were getting married, and the greenie had blushed and stuttered out defensively that they were not together.)

  
When Thomas became a Runner, it got worse. Newt was awake every morning, watching the Runners go into the Maze; he waited every night until they all made it back safely. No one ever said anything to him about it.

  
No one said anything, either, when Newt got up in the middle of the night to take blankets to Thomas’s corner of the Glade. No one said anything when he stopped coming back until morning. Chuck and Minho grumbled about their friends ditching them, but it was never true hurt, because Newt was smiling more often and Thomas was becoming more comfortable with life in the Glade.

  
Finally, one night at dinner, Gally had had enough of it. The Gladers all squeezed into the dining room, taking up each other’s personal space to all fit onto the benches of the long table. Minho had whistled lowly when Newt attempted to squeeze between Thomas and Alby, only resulting in minor flailing and landing himself in Thomas’s lap. All three laughed at the incident, but Newt stayed where he was, content with it. The other Gladers sniggered and whispered to themselves. Jeff, sitting across from Gally, muttered, “It’s actually pretty cute.”

  
“No,” Gally muttered back fiercely, eying the ‘couple’. “It’s disgusting.”

  
Newt looked up at that, hurt flickering across his features before he ducked his head and wriggled off of Thomas’s lap.

  
“Shut up, Gally,” Clint hissed, hitting the Keeper of the Builders. “They’re adorable and you’ve got a stick up your ass.”

  
“It’s not right,” Gally argued, crossing his arms and sitting back. “It’s shucking awful and disgusting and unnatural.”

  
“Go to hell!” Thomas shouted from down the table. Newt was gone.

  
“You’ll be paving the way!” Gally shouted back.

  
Dinner broke up quickly after that.

  
A few days later, a jittery Thomas approached the Keeper of the Builders. “Gally.” The older boy ignored him, so he sighed and carried on. “You’re a slinthead. Everyone knows it. You hate my guts, and you’ve got it out for Alby and Newt. And I don’t know why.”

  
Gally glared at him. At least it was a reaction. “I remember. I went through the Changing. I saw you.”

  
“Okay.” He can work with this. “So you hate me because you think you remember me. Why are you after the other guys, too? Why are you so…” Thomas paused, fidgeting. “Newt and I… aren’t— we aren’t—-”

  
Discomfort settled in Gally’s stomach at the sight of the blush rising up over the greenie’s face. “It’s just wrong, okay? That’s not how relationships work. That’s not how humans are. There’s something wrong with your head if you—”

  
“Who said that?” Thomas interrupted, crossing his arms. “Who says it’s wrong? Who decides that?”

  
“I don’t— it just— I—”

  
“Exactly.” Thomas’s shoulders slumped at he rubbed the back of his neck. “Gally,” he sighed. “Gally, who I decide to like— or, shuck, love— is none of your concern. And the same goes for everyone. I don’t know why you believe that, why you’re so against it, but… But here’s the thing. It’s not your choice. It’s not my choice. It’s no one’s choice. It just happens, because that’s how love works, and you can’t do anything about it.”

  
Gally gave Thomas a long stare, chewing the inside of his cheek. He rolled his shoulders and got back to work. The not-so-new greenie left.

  
As the sun began setting, the Keeper went to go find Newt, who was sitting in the dining hall.

  
“Newt.”

  
The blond looked up. “Gally.”

  
He hesitated just a second, then held out his hand. “I’m, uh. Sorry.”

  
A small smile turned the corners of Newt’s mouth as he took the offered hand. “Yeah, okay.”

  
//////////

  
They didn’t come back. The Maze doors were closing, and they weren’t back. Thomas had been a Runner for long enough now that he should know when to come back, and Minho was with him, and they should both have been back but they weren’t.

  
Newt had to remind himself to breathe.

  
When the Doors were firmly and entirely shut, Newt allowed himself to panic, and panic he did. He and Chuck spent the night waiting outside each entrance, moving between all four periodically, just to be sure. At one point, Chuck fell asleep. Newt didn’t.

  
Morning came, and the Gladers gathered in front of the Door that Minho and Thomas had gone into the previous morning.

  
“They’re gonna be fine, right?” Chuck asked, bouncing from foot to foot.

  
“No one’s ever spent a night in the Maze before,” someone murmured.

  
“Shut up,” Newt snapped, wringing his hands. “They’ll… They’ll be okay.”

  
Silence fell over the Glade for several tense moments.

  
“There!” Frypan shouted, pointing. Sure enough, the two Runners were stumbling around the corner, disheveled and exhausted. “They’re alive!”

  
Newt couldn’t stand and wait for them to get closer. “Tommy!” he shouted, taking a few stuttering steps forward before rushing towards the duo. Thomas looked up and met the blond in an embrace, going so far as to lift him a few inches off the ground. “You stupid shanks,” Newt mumbled into his skin. “You bloody stupid shanks, what were you doing?” Thomas just kissed him in response.

  
“Love you too,” Minho snorted, walking past them to where Jeff and Clint were waiting to give the Runners a quick check-up.

  
Gally watched the whole ordeal with his head slightly cocked.

  
“Finally,” Chuck muttered, glancing at the older Glader.

  
A small smile tweaked the corners of Gally’s lips. “Yeah. They’re… They’re good for each other.”


End file.
